Post by Capo on Nov 27, 2007 1:22:26 GMT
I wrote a feature for my student newspaper's film section last week, and it's to be published next issue. It's quite an ironic inclusion, to be honest, because I recently chose to resume the Fight Against Mediocrity, and had a sparring match on Facebook with their editors about the lousiness of writing in the paper. If you're on Facebook, you can read that rant here.
TEN BEST AND COUNTING
With 2007 almost at an end, Film Soc President Michael Pattison gives his opinion on the ten best films that hit UK screens this year…
#1 INLAND EMPIRE
Dir. David Lynch; USA
Though darker than any Almodóvar work, this could quite easily be subtitled “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown”: Laura Dern (best performance of the year?) plays an actress playing a character whose fictional nightmares splinter and prove contagious – soon she is drowning in her own fragmented identities. The move to low-budget DV lends Lynch freedom in two ways: visual expression and narrative flexibility. Erotic at times, funny at others, agreeably bizarre, often terrifying, and unlike anything you’re likely to have seen before.
#2 CLIMATES (IKLIMLER)
Dir. Nuri Bilge Ceylan; Turkey
If the director’s previous film, Uzak, was a knockout, then this is even better. In it, he and his real-life wife star as a couple whose already-rocky marriage spirals deeper into despair. A great film made with enormous confidence: full of elongated silences, lingering close-ups and expressive sound design, it is a worthy chapter in an oeuvre preoccupied with emotional constipation. Ceylan is one to watch.
#3 THE FOUNTAIN
Dir. Darren Aronofsky; USA
Hugh Jackman, the Kronos Quartet and fluid, interrelated fictions mark this masterpiece. Aronofsky's films (Pi, Requiem for a Dream and this) have no ebb and flow, no “give and take”; instead, their narratives seem to be relentless, constant flows of sustained energy, which means they are ambitious in concept, difficult in production, financially risky and challenging to watch. The Fountain, as it turns out, also happens to be emotionally devastating.
#4 ZODIAC
Dir. David Fincher; USA
Zodiac is a masterpiece of self-conscious fictionalisation (of real-life events: an infamous serial killer rampant in San Francisco). Endlessly self-reflexive, Fincher employs with great flair a wide cinematic vocabulary – framing, movement, visual and aural overlays, CGI, etc. – to produce a convincing aesthetic for a film all about information, about society’s need to adapt to technological change, in order to keep in touch with reality.
#5 THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP (LA SCIENCE DES RÊVES)
Dir. Michel Gondry; France / Italy
Gael García Bernal is brilliant as a Mexican artist in France who falls for his neighbour (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and tries to win her over… in his dreams. Necessarily ambiguous and open to interpretation, what seemingly takes place during one night of dreams might actually be a collection of memories over time, filtered into one dream-like narrative... that's the science of sleep, after all. Visually meticulous, emotionally complex, sharply written and excellently performed. Hilarious, too.
#6 A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION
Dir. Robert Altman; USA
Drenched in death and melancholic nostalgia, Altman’s last film was a fitting departure. Full of laughs, wit and energy, it gains much from Garrison Keillor’s script, and the cast (Meryl Streep, Woody Harrelson, John C. Reilly, Lily Tomlin and more) is brilliant; see it alone for their musical numbers. (Who said musicals were dead?)
#7 RATATOUILLE
Dir. Brad Bird; USA
Not one to watch when hungry, Bird’s latest Pixar effort makes for sumptuous viewing. Reny, a rat in Paris with ambitions of gourmet greatness, befriends the new mop-up boy at a restaurant that’s in critical dismay. Rich in visual texture and humour, it is nothing short of seductive.
8# THE WEDDING (WESELE)
Dir. Wojciech Smarzowski; Poland
An absurd satire on traditional Polish wedding receptions, this 2004 production is finally released on December 14. It’s the kind of relentless comedy Godard may have once made, full of despicable and charming consumerists drenched in wealth and greed. I imagine its release will be limited, though; keep your eyes peeled.
#9 GRACE IS GONE
Dir. James C. Strouse; USA
John Cusack plays a father of two whose wife is killed in Iraq; unable to tell his daughters, he embarks on a road trip to their favourite theme park. What would otherwise make an unbearably sugary treatment of loss is a subtle, powerful road movie kept afloat by its strong casting: the girls are fantastic and Cusack’s a revelation.
#10 THIS IS ENGLAND
Dir. Shane Meadows; UK
Meadows doesn’t overcome the narrative deficiencies which ground his previous films, but this is an ambitious step forward in terms of thematic complexity; at a time of political uncertainty and a war in Iraq, the film’s exploration of adolescence, nationalism and father/son relationships during the Thatcher-era Gulf War merit at least one viewing. See it for Stephen Graham’s vicious performance alone.
TEN BEST AND COUNTING
With 2007 almost at an end, Film Soc President Michael Pattison gives his opinion on the ten best films that hit UK screens this year…
#1 INLAND EMPIRE
Dir. David Lynch; USA
Though darker than any Almodóvar work, this could quite easily be subtitled “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown”: Laura Dern (best performance of the year?) plays an actress playing a character whose fictional nightmares splinter and prove contagious – soon she is drowning in her own fragmented identities. The move to low-budget DV lends Lynch freedom in two ways: visual expression and narrative flexibility. Erotic at times, funny at others, agreeably bizarre, often terrifying, and unlike anything you’re likely to have seen before.
#2 CLIMATES (IKLIMLER)
Dir. Nuri Bilge Ceylan; Turkey
If the director’s previous film, Uzak, was a knockout, then this is even better. In it, he and his real-life wife star as a couple whose already-rocky marriage spirals deeper into despair. A great film made with enormous confidence: full of elongated silences, lingering close-ups and expressive sound design, it is a worthy chapter in an oeuvre preoccupied with emotional constipation. Ceylan is one to watch.
#3 THE FOUNTAIN
Dir. Darren Aronofsky; USA
Hugh Jackman, the Kronos Quartet and fluid, interrelated fictions mark this masterpiece. Aronofsky's films (Pi, Requiem for a Dream and this) have no ebb and flow, no “give and take”; instead, their narratives seem to be relentless, constant flows of sustained energy, which means they are ambitious in concept, difficult in production, financially risky and challenging to watch. The Fountain, as it turns out, also happens to be emotionally devastating.
#4 ZODIAC
Dir. David Fincher; USA
Zodiac is a masterpiece of self-conscious fictionalisation (of real-life events: an infamous serial killer rampant in San Francisco). Endlessly self-reflexive, Fincher employs with great flair a wide cinematic vocabulary – framing, movement, visual and aural overlays, CGI, etc. – to produce a convincing aesthetic for a film all about information, about society’s need to adapt to technological change, in order to keep in touch with reality.
#5 THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP (LA SCIENCE DES RÊVES)
Dir. Michel Gondry; France / Italy
Gael García Bernal is brilliant as a Mexican artist in France who falls for his neighbour (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and tries to win her over… in his dreams. Necessarily ambiguous and open to interpretation, what seemingly takes place during one night of dreams might actually be a collection of memories over time, filtered into one dream-like narrative... that's the science of sleep, after all. Visually meticulous, emotionally complex, sharply written and excellently performed. Hilarious, too.
#6 A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION
Dir. Robert Altman; USA
Drenched in death and melancholic nostalgia, Altman’s last film was a fitting departure. Full of laughs, wit and energy, it gains much from Garrison Keillor’s script, and the cast (Meryl Streep, Woody Harrelson, John C. Reilly, Lily Tomlin and more) is brilliant; see it alone for their musical numbers. (Who said musicals were dead?)
#7 RATATOUILLE
Dir. Brad Bird; USA
Not one to watch when hungry, Bird’s latest Pixar effort makes for sumptuous viewing. Reny, a rat in Paris with ambitions of gourmet greatness, befriends the new mop-up boy at a restaurant that’s in critical dismay. Rich in visual texture and humour, it is nothing short of seductive.
8# THE WEDDING (WESELE)
Dir. Wojciech Smarzowski; Poland
An absurd satire on traditional Polish wedding receptions, this 2004 production is finally released on December 14. It’s the kind of relentless comedy Godard may have once made, full of despicable and charming consumerists drenched in wealth and greed. I imagine its release will be limited, though; keep your eyes peeled.
#9 GRACE IS GONE
Dir. James C. Strouse; USA
John Cusack plays a father of two whose wife is killed in Iraq; unable to tell his daughters, he embarks on a road trip to their favourite theme park. What would otherwise make an unbearably sugary treatment of loss is a subtle, powerful road movie kept afloat by its strong casting: the girls are fantastic and Cusack’s a revelation.
#10 THIS IS ENGLAND
Dir. Shane Meadows; UK
Meadows doesn’t overcome the narrative deficiencies which ground his previous films, but this is an ambitious step forward in terms of thematic complexity; at a time of political uncertainty and a war in Iraq, the film’s exploration of adolescence, nationalism and father/son relationships during the Thatcher-era Gulf War merit at least one viewing. See it for Stephen Graham’s vicious performance alone.